NHL capsules: Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy lead NHL-best Lightning past Oilers
![Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev takes the puck from Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl during the first period Tuesday night in Tampa, Fla. (Jason Behnken / Associated Press)](https://thumb.spokesman.com/pDodg0J7c46vep46fU0Amo6UMWU=/400x0/media.spokesman.com/photos/2018/11/06/Oilers_Lightning_Hockey.JPG.jpg)
TAMPA, Fla. – Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 33 saves and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 on Tuesday night.
Steven Stamkos had a goal and two assists, and Brayden Point and Yanni Gourde also scored for the Lightning, who have the best record in the NHL at 11-3-1.
Edmonton got goals from Ryan Strome and Leon Draisaitl, and Mikko Koskinen stopped 30 shots. Connor McDavid was kept off the scoresheet for just the second time this season as his eight-game point streak ended (six goals, five assists).
Kings 4, Ducks 1
LOS ANGELES – Ilya Kovalchuk had a goal and two assists, and Los Angeles opened the tenure of interim coach Willie Desjardins with a win over Anaheim.
Dustin Brown and Kyle Clifford scored first-period goals, while Jack Campbell made 30 saves and picked up his first career assist as the Kings comfortably won the first Freeway Faceoff of the season for these two struggling Southern California rivals.
Desjardins has run just one practice since getting his new job Sunday after the Kings fired John Stevens early in his second season in charge.
Tyler Toffoli’s empty-net goal clinched the Kings’ first back-to-back victories of the season. Los Angeles has won three of four overall following a six-game skid with a huge boost from newcomer Kovalchuk, who has nine points during that four-game stretch.
Ryan Kesler scored and John Gibson stopped 23 shots for the injury-wracked Ducks, who have lost eight of nine and earned points in just three games during that span.
Sharks 4, Wild 3
SAN JOSE, Calif. – Marcus Sorenson had a goal and two assists as San Jose beat Minnesota.
Barclay Goodrow’s second goal of the season broke a 3-all deadlock at 7:25 of the third period. Goodrow also had an assist and Martin Jones made 23 saves for the Sharks, who had dropped six straight to Minnesota.
Joe Thornton and Antti Suomela scored the other San Jose goals.
Jared Spurgeon and Matt Dumba scored 2:05 apart for the Wild to tie it at 3 early in the third. Zach Parise also had a goal for Minnesota, and Devan Dubnyk turned back 18 shots.
Minnesota (8-4-2) had won seven of eight overall.
Maple Leafs 3, Golden Knights 1
TORONTO – Frederik Andersen made 36 saves to lift Toronto over Vegas.
Connor Brown, Mitch Marner and Nazem Kadri scored for the Maple Leafs (10-5-0). Brown also had an assist.
Cody Eakin scored for the Golden Knights (6-8-1), who got 18 stops from Marc-Andre Fleury.
Senators 7, Devils 3
OTTAWA, Ontario – Mark Stone had two goals and three assists, Colin White scored twice and Ottawa beat New Jersey in the Senators’ first game since the emergence of an embarrassing viral video.
The clip showed seven players during an Uber ride in Phoenix last month insulting the team and assistant coach Martin Raymond. Earlier in the day, Stone dismissed the latest Senators drama as a “hiccup” and said the team is already repairing the frayed relationship between players and coaches that was laid bare in the video.
Thomas Chabot, Ryan Dzingel and Magnus Paajarvi had the other goals for the Senators (6-6-3). Craig Anderson made 30 saves before he was replaced by Mike McKenna (six saves) for the final five minutes. Chabot also had two assists, and Matt Duchene had three.
Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac scored for the Devils (6-6-1), who haven’t won consecutive games since starting the season with four straight wins. Cory Schneider started in goal but was replaced by Keith Kinkaid in the second period after allowing four goals on 22 shots.
Blue Jackets 4, Stars 1
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Sergei Bobrovsky made 27 saves to lead Columbus past Dallas.
Anthony Duclair, Markus Nutivaara, Nick Foligno and Ryan Murray scored for the Blue Jackets, who snapped a two-game skid.
Ben Bishop stopped 30 shots and Jamie Benn scored for the Stars, who lost their second straight after winning three in a row.
Bobrovsky, who has struggled lately, withstood a 6-on-5 surge after Dallas pulled Bishop late in the game.
Rangers 5, Canadiens 3
NEW YORK – Neal Pionk scored the tiebreaking goal on a sensational, end-to-end rush late in the third period and New York rallied to beat Montreal for its fourth straight win.
Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider each had a goal and an assist, Tony DeAngelo and Pavel Buchnevich also scored, and Kevin Hayes had three assists for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves.
New York trailed 3-1 early in the second period before scoring the last four goals – three in the third.
Tomas Tatar had two goals and Max Domi also scored for the Canadiens, who were 7-3-1 in their previous 11 games. Brendan Gallagher and Jeff Petry each had two assists, and Carey Price stopped 27 shots.
Red Wings 3, Canucks 2, SO
DETROIT – Dylan Larkin scored the only goal in a shootout to give Detroit a comeback win over Vancouver.
Justin Abdelkader and Gustav Nyquist scored in regulation for the Red Wings, who have won four of five. Jimmy Howard stopped 40 shots before denying Elias Pettersson, Nikolay Goldobin and Bo Horvat in the tiebreaker.
Pettersson and defenseman Ben Hutton scored for the Canucks, who had won three straight. Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves.
Blues 4, Hurricanes 1
ST. LOUIS – Ryan O’Reilly had his first NHL hat trick and Robby Fabbri added his first goal in almost two years, sending St. Louis over Carolina.
Chad Johnson, starting his second game of the season, made 38 saves in his first win since March 31, 2018, for Buffalo.
O’Reilly has five goals in the last four games. He extended his scoring streak to eight games, with seven goals and eight assists during that span.
Jaccob Slavin scored his first goal of the season for the Hurricanes, who outshot the Blues 39-19. St. Louis had just seven shots after taking a 3-1 lead in the first period.
Carolina goalie Curtis McElhinney fell to 1-6-1 against the Blues in his career.